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The Portland Trail Blazers will get the opportunity to deal with adversity as they learned that star shooting guard Brandon Roy will be sidelined for a spell with a pair of sore knees.

With a lot of teams, they oftentimes would fold up their tent and head home. For at least one game, that wouldn’t be the case.

The Trail Blazers welcomed the Utah Jazz to the Rose Garden in a matchup that was especially important to Portland in that they hold the #8 playoff berth in the Western Conference.

But back to Roy. Wesley Matthews has been the player charged to take Roy’s starting spot in the lineup and he has not disappointed thus far, averaging 15.4 PPG while starting 11 games.

Interestingly enough, Matthews was a former member of the Jazz before being lured to the Trail Blazers with a 5-year, $34 million contract. And apparently, that would give him an advantage as he and LaMarcus Aldridge combined for 57 points in leading Portland to the 100-89 decision over Utah.

The Trail Blazers connected on eight of their first 10 attempts and Matthews drained a 3-pointer, putting Portland up 191-0. However, Portland went cold, missing 14 of their next 17 shots and losing the lead in the process, with a Earl Watson basket that put Utah ahead 30-29.

The Trail Blazers would regain the lead and enter the intermission up 46-41.

Matthews heated up in the third quarter as he scored 16, helping Portland take a sizeable 70-55 advantage. Utah cut their deficit to 85-78 with 6:44 remianing in the game on a Jeremy running hook shot; the Trail Blazers would proceed to go on a 6-0 spurt with aldridge hitting a basket in the paint while Andre Miller knocked down a jumper to push Portland’s lead to double-digits and oce the game in the process.

Matthews led all Trail Blazers scorers with 30 points (including four 3-pointers), along with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals while Aldridge chipped in 27 with 3 rebounds and a steal. Miller added 16 with 10 assists while Marcus Camby, despite scoring only 4 points, grabbed 20 rebounds.

The Jazz were led by Deron Williams with 19 points (including three treys), along with a rebound and 8 assists while Paul Millsap added 17 with 5 rebounds. Al Jefferson earned a double-double, scoring 13 with 10 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block.

Portland (17-16) returns to action on Sunday when they host the Houston Rockets while Utah (22-11) flies to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies Saturday night.